Chinese Underwater Capabilities Has One Major Flaw, Giving US Allies Advantage In War Situation…

A recent Nikkei analysis revealed that a huge weakness exists for the Chinese navy. Its underwater capability is at a major disadvantage as the coast of China is surrounded by light blue – shallow water – giving Japan and Taiwan a significant advantage if things were to escalate.

“When you look at China’s submarine bases, each of them has a fairly shallow water from which their submarines have to pass to reach deep water,” Tom Shugart, a former U.S. Navy officer, told Nikkei Asia

The key issue being that submarines are much easier to track as they cross shallow water. This would theoretically allow Japan and Taiwan to deploy their navies undetected and find themselves quickly on China’s east coast.

“A quick look at Google Earth reveals that China’s coast is surrounded by pale blue – which features shallow water – as opposed to dark blue deep water off the east coast of Taiwan and Japan,” Nikkei said.

“To move from China’s narrow seas to the high ocean, they have to cross different points and straits,” Sugart said. “This will provide an opportunity for an adversary – the U.S. and our Allied submarine forces – to watch more closely and try to stop them if we were involved in or before a conflict”.

Source: Nikkei